Music

Once upon a time (well, for about 10 years actually) I used to sing for a living, accompanying myself on guitar, mostly playing songs from the Swing Era, mixed in with a bit of blues and jazz. Sadly, little survives in the way of decent recordings or even pictures from my singing career, but here are a few fuzzy renditions that give a hint of what I once did and what, once in a while, I still do (though now, if anyone gives me money, I give it to charity because it’s no fun singing for money)…

 

Walking Stick and Nice Work If You Can Get It, at False Creek Grill n Chill 2023…

Fly Me to the Moon, from False Creek Grill n Chill 2024…

Pennies from Heaven, from 2021 in Leg-in-Boot Square…

And (because it was a rainy day) Stormy Weather…

Blue Moon, at Leg-in-Boot Square, 2023…

Istanbul, at False Creek Grill n Chill 2025…

Feeling Good in public, for the False Creek Grill n Chill, 2025….

Here’s a 2025 recording of I’ll See You In My Dreams (Kahn & Jones, 1924, with some notable inspiration from Joe Brown’s arrangement) with a ukulele and guitar accompaniment. I had a sore throat but I think it adds something good to an already poignant little song.

Historical recordings

The only existing video of me singing in the 1980s

This is not the song I’d like to be remembered for, but it’s all I have from my early singing career. I didn’t much like the song, but I’d learned it for a regular gig in a Tex-Mex restaurant, and it was quite appropriate for this Sunday lunchtime gig where my role was to add atmosphere, not to bring down the house. You can tell I’d barely woken up after the Saturday night gig before it (where I would not have been sitting down!).

Recordings from the Greys pub in Brighton, 1987.

These started out OK but the quality decayed horribly over the years. Sorry for the fuzziness and distortion, but I rather like them.  I’d just done the National Busker’s Carnival earlier that day (and came second). My recently born first son was in the audience and my wife said she could feel my voice vibrating through his head. I hope it did him no harm (he turned into one of the loveliest adults I’ve ever known, so I guess it couldn’t have been that bad).

Buddy can you spare a dime (Harburg & Gorney)

In the mood (Garland & Razaf)

Sweet Georgia Brown (Bernie, Pinkard & Casey) (with Mike Mann on spoons)

A few songs from around 2001

I did these as I was trying to get the hang of making digital recordings, made in my office at home. They’re very quick and dirty, with a very small amount of double-tracking on the guitar solos, but the quality is a little higher than the earlier live recordings.

Guilty (Whiting, Akst, & Kahn)

Every time we say goodbye (Porter)

So Tired (Morgan & Stuart)

2010s –

In December 2010 my wife bought me a saxophone, starting me on a process of learning a new instrument a year, which I’ve been doing ever since. I’ve never learned any of them at all well, but I love the way it forces me to use different muscles and new ways of thinking and feeling. This rendition of St James Infirmary is from 2011, about a year into my sax learning process (I’m not really any better at it now). It is also my first attempt at multitrack recording with Garageband on the iPad. There were some sync and balance issues, not to mention lots of fluffed notes, but I rather like the very raw and wonky way that it turned out:

I later got to stay in the hotel that is claimed to be the site of the actual St James Infirmary. How cool is that?

In 2012 I gatecrashed the OpenEd conference cruise as there happened to be a few of my friends at the conference, and the cruise boat happened to be leaving from a dock that is about 10 minutes away from where I live by False Creek Ferry. After a drink or three or four, I joined in the jamming session, and someone recorded it. I should note that I usually sing this song (Summertime) half an octave lower, and mostly with far less alcohol, for reasons that may be painfully apparent…

Here’s a video of me singing ‘I wanna be like you’ in Donnellan’s pub, Granville St, Vancouver, in 2018…

Stuff I’ve written

I used to write a lot of songs but I don’t do it so much any more. Here are a couple from recent years. I made the recordings myself and, to make things worse, I sang and played all the parts…

Dogme (the Lars Von Trier song) 2021

Sing for your smile, 2022

And here’s an oldie, written in the mid 80s and recorded in the early 2000s…

Only human, about 1985 (recorded about 2001)